Barack Obama predicts US will see woman president 'very soon'

Washington: A woman in the White House? President Barack Obama says that will happen "very soon," according to remarks released on Friday.

"We have some amazing female [public] servants all across the country and there is no doubt that sometime very soon, we're going to have a female president," he said in an interview with broadcaster ABC.

What's more, "I'm confident that she will do a great job," he told veteran journalist Barbara Walters.

ABC, which released extracts of the interview on its website before it airs later Friday, did not specify whether Obama mentioned Hillary Clinton in this context.

There is much buzz that the former secretary of state, who unsuccessfully ran against Obama in a bid to snag the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, might be considering another run.

The former first lady and New York senator leads polls on who should become her party's pick for the 2016 race for the White House.

While she hasn't slammed the door on a possible candidacy, she has been focusing for now on paid speeches and work linked to the Clinton Foundation together with husband Bill - who was US president between 1993 and 2001 - and daughter Chelsea.

A Quinnipiac University national poll published November 13 found Clinton tied with Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in an early look at the 2016 bid for the presidency.

Clinton holds a lead of at least nine points against other potential Republican rivals, including Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, both senators, and Congressman Paul Ryan.